4th Revolution: Prove Yourself! That Which Fuels You?

The rain poured down over a recently cleared out stadium, a man in an orange hoodie and sweatpants huddling under the back exit that led out to an alleyway. His still bloody and recently bandaged fists were tightly clenched inside his pockets, as were his teeth. His hood was up, acting to cover his heavily bruised face.

The back door opened, a squad of security guards leading a tall muscular man in a blue jogging suit out alongside a short man in a jacket of the same blue.

"Great job out there as always Oz," the short man complimented the tall one with a firm pat on the back, "poor guy didn't know what happened til it was over."

The tall man grinned, looking over to the smaller man, "Couldn't have done it without a good couch at my back."

The hooded man by the door sucked his teeth. "What a load of shit," he muttered.

"Huh?" The tall man named Oz looked over to the door, as did his couch and security guards. "Kai," he grinned, taking a step forward, "came to see the championship match?" He extended a warm hand to the hooded man, "Sorry for roughing you up the other night, no hard feelings right?"

Kai glared up to Oz, "Save it." The shorter male raised his fists, "I didn't come to suck off your ego. I came for what's mine."

Oz let out a heavy sigh, "Kai.. the competition is over." The taller male dug into his pocket, "look, how about I buy us a round and you can look to trying your hand again next year-"

Kai shot a right handed jab across Oz's face, stunning him for a moment and forcing him to stumble back a few steps. The security guards went for their belts, pulling out a taser each and aiming them at Kai.

"I'm sick of waiting," Kai snarled, raising his fists up at Oz, "we're settling this! Right here, right now!"

Oz just stared at him, holding his face before letting out a sigh. "Alright," he raised his now blood covered hand to the guards, signaling them to step back as he approached Kai as blood ran out from the taller male's nose.

The two men looked each other in the eye, Kai looking up to Oz with a fire filled glare while Oz looked down with only an ice cold glare. The two placed their closed fists together, Kai raising his fists and slamming them down hard upon Oz's knuckles. Staring at Kai for a moment, Oz then raised up his fists then slammed them down hard onto Kai's.

Kai winced as the sharp pain ruptured up from his knuckles and up to his shoulders, the raw pain being enough to break his tightly held fists and knock him to his knees. With one quick motion, Oz threw a hard jab right across Kai's face which knocked him from his knees and onto the ground on his side.

The shorter male, now dazed with his head spinning, lay there on the ground with his head in a puddle as a sharp ringing echoed through his ear. After what felt like an eternity in a daze, the ringing faded just as Oz's coach announced, "Ten.. match set," with an irritated sigh, "come on Oz, let's get you out of the rain."

"Better luck next time Kai," Oz waved to the down boxer, turning on his heel as his coach and security guards lead him out of the alleyway.

Kai glared at Oz as he walked off, his glare sharpening as his teeth gritted together into an even tighter and far more violent snarl. "No…" he growled like a beast, "this isn't what I wanted!"

"Then what did you want?" a voice echoed from behind him. Kai gasped, rolling his head until he lay flat on his back. There, perched high above him on the cables of far away power lines, was Selias glaring down at him. "To defeat him?" she smirked, "To kill him?"

"Of course I do…" Kai muttered weakly to the seraph, barely noticing the now blood red sky that loomed over his head, "but what's it to you?"

Selias held out her hand, a blood red orb made of flesh and covered in pulsing red veins forming in her palm, "I can grant that wish, for a price."

"You… you can do that?" Kai muttered, his stunned open eyes sharpening back into his determined gaze once again. "Then name your price, demon."

"Cast aside your humanity fledgling," Selias said, "and live among me and my beastly kin as my servant."

Kai laughed, "If it will allow me to destroy Oz, you can have my humanity," he told her. "Take it from my whole family if you want to."

"Then go," Selias dropped the orb of flesh upon Kai, "unleash your anger." The orb hissed, expanding rapidly the moment it struck Kai before consuming him whole, two two fragments of it breaking off and taking flight into the rain filled sky.

In a dimly lit house on the far end of town, a japanese woman with pin straight black hair stared out into the rain from her kitchen window. Placing the last dish from the set she was washing back into the cupboard, she let out a heavy sigh before shutting the cupboard tight.

"Kai…" she muttered under her breath, "where are you?" Looking over her shoulder to a simple table in the center of the kitchen, her eyes fell upon a small boy who lay asleep at his seat. "Okay tough guy," she managed a small grin as she walked over to the table and scooped up the boy, "let's get you to bed."

She took only two steps away from the table, and with her back turned to the still open window, the pair of flesh fragments lunged out from the black of night and drove themselves into the necks of both the woman and the child. The woman gasped, dropping the child to the floor as her whole body began to tremble.

"Satoko!" Kai's voice roared through her head as the flesh at the back of her neck began to expand outward, "Join me! Become one with me!"

"K-Kai?" she muttered. Her baby cried on the floor, but not for long as the flesh that had borrowed itself onto the boy's neck quickly expanded around him and enveloped the small child, constricting and reshaping him into the shape of a snake. The woman cackled, her voice became raspy as the flesh in her own neck began to consume her the same as the small boy, "Yes my dear! As you wish!" cried woman, goat horns ripping out from the top of her head.

Once enveloped in the fragments of flesh and pulsing veins, a pair of black holes emerged in the center of the woman and child, sucking them in before vanishing from site.

Back out in the rain covered alleyway, the blood red sky loomed above Oz, his coach and security team as a loud snarl erupted from behind them.

The couch jumped, looking over his shoulder, "What the hell was-"

He wasn't able to finish his sentence however, as a large humanoid chimera with the head of a lion shot out from the shadows and ripped the couch in half at the waist with a single swipe of his claws.

Oz shuttered and gasped, stumbling backwards as he trembled beneath the shadow of the beast, "MACK!" he cried out in horror at the sight of his couch's dismembered body.

"SIR! GET BACK!" shouted one security guard, the both of them getting between Oz and the beast before firing their tasers at it.

As the electrified needles pierced his skin, the chimera who now cleared had a goat's head on his shoulder and a snake for a tail, looked merely annoyed as he slowly looked towards the guards and walked towards them. Reaching forward, he grabbed one by his face then tossed him into the other, crushing the head of the guard he held skull and all as he stared down Oz.

"K-Kai…" shuttered Oz within the shadow of the beast, "is that you mate?"

"Not anymore," snarled the beast, dropping the broken body of the security guard he held to the ground before marching upon Oz. "We are the champion now... We are," he drove his free claw into Oz's gut, the champion coughing up blood as a result, "ASHURA!"

{Insert Opening Theme: "Rinbu Revolution" by Chihara Minori}

Early the next morning, Trey lay asleep on a bench in the annex with a simple grey blanket covering him. It wasn't until his ear caught the muttering just over his shoulder that he began to toss and turn before finally looking over his shoulder to Syd who, along with Eli, spoke into the annex's center terminal with large bolded green letters reading "Sound Only" on the main screen.

"The beast carved right through your blades?" called a digitally distorted voice in a purplexed tone, "Just with its claws?"

"Yes sir," Eli spoke as Syd nodded, "it surprised even myself when it happened."

"I see… that's concerning," the digital voice muttered, almost as if they were thinking out loud. "Network RiderJayd, I'll be needing to analyze your blades. Mind sending them over?"

Syd nodded, "Right away sir." She looked over to Torchwick, who was perched just overtop where Trey was sleeping, "Torchy, be a dear will you?"

"HOOT! HOOT!" cooed the mechanical owl eagerly, fluttering up from its perch only to plummet down upon Trey moments later. Upon landing on the boy, Torchwick squeezed a slight wince out from Trey before finally fluttering up and over to the display racks where the still broken swords of Jayd's striker form were housed.

Torchwick landed on top of the case displaying Jayd's swords, a loud click sounding off the moment the owl's feet touched the large display case. Torchwick then closed his eyes, a faint chirping emitting out from him as a bright flash of emerald light erupted from the case. Once the light faded and Torchwick's eyes reopened, Trey gasped as he saw the broken hilts had vanished.

"Whoa…" he muttered, getting up from his bed quietly to inspect the case.

"Annnd there," Syd said with a grin as she looked back to the terminal, "you should be receiving them soon sir."

"Thank you Network Rider Jayd," Syd's commander said back to her. As they spoke to Syd and Eli, Trey's gaze drifted down from the display cases down to a rack loaded up with several vials of jaydite. "I'll make repairs and adjustments as quickly as I can, though I'll have you know it may take a while. I have other network riders with equipment in need of repairs," Syd's commander continued. Partially out of curiosity, but mostly out of boredom, Trey picked up one of the vials and began fiddling with it lightly in his hand.

"I don't suppose there'd be a way for us to be placed at the top of the que?" Eli asked, "My contractor will be needing her improved swords within the next couple of hours."

The commander's voice huffed, "I am far from a miracle worker Eli," they told him. "Even if I bumped you two up, do you have any idea how hard it'd be to get a job like this done in such a short amount of time?"

Syd clapped her hands together and grinned nervously. "Sir, we'd be willing to make it worth your while," she pleaded.

Trey looked back to the terminal, his hands slipping as he did so resulting in the vial he held to fall out from his hands. "Oh crap!" he muttered under his breath, attempting to catch the vial only for it to fall behind the rack itself.

The commander fell silent, then spoke, "Network Rider Jayd…" her tone shifter to a far more serious one, "is there someone inside your annex?"

Syd swallowed hard, her gaze shifting to Trey with wide eyes and shrunken pupils. She raised a finger to her lips as she looked to Trey, then lowered her hand as she turned back to the terminal. "Well… sort of?"

"Define "sort of"," instructed Syd's commander.

Trey cleared his throat, then stepped forward. "I'm Trey Morgan-Hart, sir…" he told her directly. "I was a fledgling involved with Syd's last encounter. I'm not causing any trouble for her and Eli, am I?"

There was a long pause from the commander, then finally. "Syd?" the commander questioned, "Who is that?"

"Syd is the name given to my contractor sir," Eli informed the commander, "this Fledgling, Trey, gave her that name himself."

"He.. named her Syd?" the commander paused once again, then let out a small sigh, "but why is he still with the two of you? Did you not sever his link to the Gate Keeper's realm?"

"We tried sir," Eli said, "yet a fledgling the boy remains."

"I see…" the commander said after a moment of contemplation, "then I know exactly how you two can repay me for the rushed order."

Syd nodded. "We're listening," she and Eli both nodded in unison.

"Ensure the boy's safety while he is under your care," the commander told them, "is that clear?"

Syd nodded once again. "Yes sir, of course sir," the both said in unison once more.

"Good. Now, Trey was it?" the commander asked, turning their attention to the boy in front of the terminal. "Is there anything you would like to say?"

"Yes, thank you sir," Trey bowed, "and, can I ask you one question?"

"Shoot," the commander said.

Trey rose to stand up right again, "Jewel Hart, do you know anyone by that name?"

An audible gasp came out from the terminal, "Child… how is it you know that name?"

"She was my mother," Trey held up the silver heart necklace he wore. "She gave me this late one night when I was little, then she disappeared.. My father, Owen Morgan-Hart, says she was a network rider like Syd."

"She was child, and a strong one at that," the commander informed him. "You should count yourself lucky to have had her as a mother."

"Was?" Trey questioned, feeling his heart sink. "What… happened to her?"

"Fledgling Trey, that's something I will not disclose over an intercom," the commander told him. "Should we ever meet face to face… we'll talk about your mother, okay?"

"I would appreciate that, thanks," Trey nodded, then grinned. "I'm sorry, sir, but is there something I can call you other than sir?"

A faint chuckle echoed from the terminal, "I like you, fledgling Trey," the commander told him. "Call me Cleric."

Deep within the gate keeper's network, Ashura stood in the center of a pit-like arena with ten other gate keepers surrounding him. Staring them down, Ashura bared his claws at the beasts surrounding him as they lunged towards him. With one claw he effortlessly cut down half of the oncoming force with a simple strike, with his other claw he carved up the remaining half.

As this transpired, the snake-like tail of Ashura whimpered quietly behind him, "Mother…" it muttered as it at the marred shoulder where the goat's head once was.

Upon seeing his victory, Selias sucked her teeth from where she perched up above on her skeletal ring. "If he could destroy all of these beasts… then why?" she snarled, "Why would he retreat when he had the network rider within his claw?"

"Perhaps sister," a voice cooed from just over the seraph's shoulder, "your champion truly fears said network rider?"

Selias turned, her jaw hanging open when she laid eyes upon the pale blue succubus that now loomed over her. "Sister Deseray…" she muttered with a glimmer in her eye. The seraph then, without warning, rose to her feet and threw her arms tightly around the succubus, "Finally, you have returned."

"Indeed I have Sister Selias," the succubus cooed softly, gently running her hand over the seraph's burning hot feathers, "and now that I have…" She looked down to the arena where Ashura stood staring back at the two sisters, "Everything will be set right."

Will stood by the goal posts in the school field, watching as the sun rose of the city while tapping his foot quicker and quicker as the seconds turned into minutes.

"Come on, come on!" he muttered under his breath as he looked at his watch on his wrist as it struck half past seven, "Seven am sharp, that's what you said isn't it?"

"YO!" Syd's voice echoed from far away, "GOOD TO SEE YOU MADE IT KID!"

Will quickly looked over his shoulder to see Syd and Trey coming into the school yard from the front gate. Trey let out a yawn while Syd munched down on a jaydite ice pop, her eyes closed as the pair walked towards Will at a leisurely pace.

"You're late!" Will barked at Syd, kicking a ball in her direction.

Trey gasped, looking towards Syd who's eyes were still closed as she swallowed her treat. Raising a single hand, she caught the oncoming ball in her palm. With a yawn, she released it and let it fall to the ground.

"You arrived at seven on the dot yeah?" She asked as she finished her ice pop. "Well, we intended to arrive at seven thirty. So neither one of us is really late now, are we?"

Trey blinked, looking towards Syd, "You gave him the wrong time on purpose?"

"That's right?" Syd nodded.

"But why!" Will piped up, "with that thing after me, can we really afford to be messing around like this?!"

"It was a test Fledgling Will," Eli's voice echoed as Syd narrowed her gaze upon him, "to test both your patience and your anger."

"And judging by your tone," Syd said as she placed her foot on the ball in front of her, "you've already got one strike."

Suddenly, Syd kicked up the ball then sent it flying at Will from where he stood by the net. With a gasp, Will rolled out of the ball's path as it flew with a swish into the goal's netting.

"This girl is crazy!" Will panted like crazy, looking from side to side only to not see her anywhere in front of him, "Just who the hell is she?!"

"Starting today I'm your instructor, that's all you need to know" Syd said, appearing behind him as she picked him up from the ground and pushed him out from the net. "I'll be giving you three tests today Will. You failed test one, now let's move on to test number two."

"Whoa! Whoa!" Will held his hands up at Syd, "Can I at least get the rules first?! What sort of test is this?!"

"Don't worry, this part is simple," Syd smirked before kicking the ball over to him and assuming a wide stance with her hands resting at the ready by her sides. "Get as many goals against me as you can kiddo."

From the side lines, Trey simply blinked. "Is this really necessary?" he muttered to himself.

Will stared at the ball, kicking it back and forth between his feet for a moment. In silence, he kicked it back and forth once again before looking with a narrowed gaze at Syd. Winding his foot back, he kicked the ball forward with all that he had which was more than enough to send it spiralling towards the goal and past her shoulder.

"Damn," she whistled as the ball seemed to slow her in point of view, "nice kick for a kid."

"Agreed," Eli said, Syd reaching her hand over her shoulder and back towards the ball, "however… he'll need more than brute force to succeed." Syd nodded, catching the ball once again with ease in the palm of her hand.

"Nice shot, but it needs a bit of work," Syd told Will as she tossed the ball back at him. "Why don't we give it another shot?"

Will stared at the ball, watching as it rolled towards him and forced to a halt upon hitting his feet. Gritting his teeth together, Will tightened his fists before closing his eyes shot and looking further away from the ball.

"WHY?!" he barked, "What the bloody hell is even the point?! I won't ever get better no matter what I do!" Syd and Trey stood in silence, only being able to watch as the now shaking muttered a ever so slight sob as tears began to roll out from his eyes and down his cheeks. "To hell with it all…" he breathed, wiping his tears from his eyes, "I don't even care anymore about this stupid game."

Without a word, Syd approached him and cupped his cheek. "Then why are you so angry about it?" she asked him, wiping the tears from his other eye.

Will gasped, his eyes opening as he looked up to the woman in front of him, "What… what was that?" he managed to ask her.

Syd grinned, stooping down to her knees as she picked up the ball, "Clearly it does matter, at least to you, this little game of yours. Sure, you might have given up on it, but I'm not gonna give up on you just yet." She reached out and messed up the boy's hair, "Now tell me, what about this game you play has you so angry?"

"There's this boy.. Ronnie," Will explained, taking in a gulp as he looked Syd in the eye, "he's making it a pain… just cause he's the team captain."

"He doesn't think you're good enough," Syd said, "does he?"

Will nodded, "Plus he thinks he's the best there is."

"God, he sounds like a real twat don't he?" Syd laughed as she stood back up, "Thing is about people like him. They never improve, and it's all because they believe they don't have to." She clapped the ball in both her hands, her grin widening as she looked upon Will, "You on the other hand are a different story, now how about we give it another go?"

Will stared at the woman in front of him, a sparkle in his eyes as his frown soon turned into a grin. The boy nodded, "Ya! Let's do it!" he cheered.

In a darkened lab littered with spare parts, half finished experiments and scattered paper work, a woman in a white lab coat with long blond hair done up in an over the shoulder braid typed away at a terminal with only the glaring red overhead bulbs acting as the only source of light in the room. To her one side was a glass case containing Syd's still broken striker blades, and to the other a half empty coffee cup and o two empty ones with heavy dried up stains at the base of them.

The blond woman, while still typing away with one hand, reached for her coffee with the other. "Reforge the blade, density times one hundred to withstand cutting force," she sipped her coffee, Syd's striker blade reconstructing itself only with a jet black color in place of its original glimmering silver hue. "For the beasts fur… jaydite coating will add to the cutting power," she continued to type, a vibrant green edge appearing on the sharp side of the blade.

As the woman worked, Eli's voice echoed out from her terminal. "Cleric," he spoke, "we're just about ready to engage, are my contractor's swords ready yet?"

The woman smirked, hitting a button on her terminal. "As they'll ever be Eli," she told Eli, "that beast won't know what hit it until it's head lays severed on the ground."

{End of Part A}

{Start of Part B}

Ashura stood at the mouth of a tunnel leading out from the Gate Keeper's realm to the human realm. The snake that was the beast's tail whimpered from behind him, the beast snarling before grabbing the snake by the throat.

"Quit your insufferable sobbing boy!" Roared the beast, pulling the snake head to his own and looking him dead in the eye, "Or you'll share your mother's fate!"

"Ashura," spoke the firm voice of Selias, the beast looking back into the void of the tunnel to where an amber flame now stood. "Spare your young your verbal lashings… there are more important matters for you to see to."

Ashura sneered, releasing the snake's head from his grasp. The snake, once freed, coiled around Ashura's waist and shuttered.

"Fear not Lord Selias," said the beast, turning on his heel to face the tunnel's exit, "I'll avenge that pet of yours."

Selias narrowed her gaze up Ashura from beyond the flame, watching from her ring of bones with her arms crossed as the beast made his way out of the tunnel of cables.

"You had better…" Selias muttered, "for your own sake."

At the school field, Will sat on the bleachers lacing up his runners with an unsteady hand. Pulling one shoe tight with a firm pull, Will then rose his feet before slamming then down on the ground. Upon hitting the ground, both sets of his laces instantly came undone, the boy letting out a tired huff as a result.

"Nervous Will?" Trey asked, coming up from beside him.

Will let out a sigh, then nodded. "I can hardly breath…" Will said, gripping his chest as he looked out to the field.

Ronnie stood out by the goal, smirking back at Will before making a rude gesture towards him.

Will looked away from Ronnie, his eyes landing as his untied shoes. "What am I gonna do?"

"First, we are gonna get those shoes tied," Trey told him, kneeling done before double knotting both of Will's laces before pulling them tight. "There," he grinned at the boy, "how's that? Not too tight I hope?"

Will shook his head, "No, it's perfect…" he gulped, moving his gaze from his laces to the older male in front of him. "Please tell me I've got what it takes to prove to Ronnie I can do this."

"Sorry, but I can't…" Trey told him, placing a firm hand on Will's shoulder, "because you don't. People like Ronnie, they'll never approve of people like you or me."

Will huffed, looking away from Trey, "That's helpful-"

"Let me finish!" Trey cut him off, grabbing the boy by his chin and turning Will's head back towards his own to meet his gaze. "Take this from someone who wanted to hear these words long ago.. you have nothing to prove to anyone. Just do your best, and have fun. Okay Will?"

Will stared at Trey in silence for a good long while. He took in a big gulp, about to say something when suddenly a whistle blew from the center of the field.

"ALRIGHT! EVERYONE TO THEIR POSITIONS!" called a couch who stood in the center of the field, which caused Will to jump as he turned on his heel.

The moment he did, he locked eyes with Ronnie who was staring at him with a cocky smirk. Will narrowed his gaze at Ronnie only for a moment before looking away and heading to the center of the field.

The moment Will left his side, a loud buzzer sounded off from Trey's pocket. The young man fished out the source of the buzzing, a small disk with a speaker and a small flashing green light on the top of it. Once in the palm of his hand, he hit a red button on the side of it and put it to his ear.

"Syd?" Trey asked, shifting from side to side, "Where are you?"

"You got your eyes on the kid?" Syd answered Trey's question with one of her own.

Trey nodded "Looks like they're about to start tryouts…" he told her, "you sure you don't need me on the same plane as you?"

"Nope, besides we need you on the surface to keep an eye on things," Syd explained.

"Okay…" Trey returned, scratching his head a bit, "and I'm to do that… how?"

"It's within the communicator we gave you Fledgling Trey," Eli cut in, "simply unfold it and you'll be able to see into the Gate Keeper's domain from your own."

Trey lowered the communicator from his ear and, after inspecting the device for a moment or two, found a small groove that led into a line which ran around the entire device. "Oh," he muttered, digging a nail into the groove and popping it open.

On the inside of one half was a small lense piece and on the other was a clip that looked like it was made to fit his ear. Trey then fastened it to his ear, finding that he could see perfectly out the lense.

"You figure it out kid?" Syd asked.

"Yeah," Trey nodded, "so you want me to make sure that Will doesn't leave the field right?"

"Not exactly," Syd told him, "we just need you to keep him safe."

"But won't the gate keeper plane you're in collapse if he leaves it?" Trey asked, a bit puzzled by the seemingly contradictory information.

"No it won't Fledgling Trey," Eli's voice echoed into his ear, "because Ashura this time… will be forming his domain around Syd and myself."

At the mention of this, Trey gasped as his eyes widened, "You're counting on that beast doing that?"

Far away from where Trey sat on the bleachers, Jayd stood in their Striker form at the top of the school building. "Counting on?" she said, smirking under her mask, "We made sure of it."

Suddenly, the sky above Jayd turned blood red and a withered down skull hung in place of the sun. With their eyes darting behind them, Jayd laid eyes upon Ashura who now loomed over them with their claws flared out to either side of the beast.

"My apologies Fledgling Trey," Eli spoke as Jayd quickly drew their swords to block an oncoming strike from both of Ashura's claws, "our three o'clock has arrived."

Back at the field, Trey kept his eyes on Will as he fixed the communicator to his ear and placed the scanner over his eye.

"Hey! No way, it's you!" Lizz's voice echoed from over Trey's shoulder, the young man turning to just in time to see the girl he met yesterday come up to him with a smile on her face and the box Trey had saved in her hands. "This seat taken?" she asked, pointing to the spot on the bleachers next to Trey.

Trey shook his head. "No, go right ahead," he said, motioning to the seat beside him.

Lizz sat beside him, placing the box on her lap, "So what brings you here today stranger?" her grin widened, "you got a younger sibling trying out today or something?"

"Actually I uh…" Trey paused for a moment, swallowed, then with a grin told her, "I used to go to this school not too long ago. Sure, I wasn't on the team exactly, but I always make sure to come back and cheer on the newcomers when try-outs start."

As Trey spoke, Jill's eyes began to sparkle. She then reached out her hand and took hold of his, "You're a cinnamon roll!" she told him, "Please tell me some lucky someone swooped you up off your feet and begged you to marry them!"

Trey sweat dropped, "Well, believe me I had my eye on someone but," he gulped, "he shot me down, pretty hard."

Liz gasped, then covered her mouth with her free hand, "Oh.. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"Hey, it's okay," Trey assured her. "Thinking about it, he didn't deserve me anyway." He then looked down to the box on Liz's lap, "what is that anyway?"

Suddenly, the coach blew his whistle causing Liz to look forward to the field as the game was starting. She glanced to Trey in the corner of her eye and winked at him, "You'll see after the game, okay?"

"GAME ON!" shouted the coach, Will and the forward player facing opposite him locking eyes with one another at the blow of the whistle.

Darting forward, Will and the opposing forward rushed for the ball with Will managing to swipe the ball with his foot and carry it past his current road block. Kicking the ball forward as he ran away from the center of the field, Will turned his gaze towards his real target, Ronnie, who stared him down with a cocky smirk and hands at the ready.

"Come on little William," Ronnie chuckled under his breath, glancing over to Liz at the stand whose eyes were fixed on Will, "show her just how much of a failure you are."

Back in the Gate Keeper's plain, Ashura slashed his claws down upon Jayd's blades with heavier and heavier blows as his breath began to sound more and more strained with each swing of his claws.

"What's wrong little kitty?" Jayd smirked under their mask, raising her blades to lock Ashura's claws into a parry, "finding it more difficult to break my swords this time?"

"You loathsome little pest!" Ashura snared, breaking Jayd's parry with a violent swing of his claws, Jayd's swords remaining intact, "No way in all of this world is there anyone stronger than me! What did you do!"

Jayd laughed, raising her sword to allow Ashura to notice the collar. "We adapted," Eli informed him, "the blades you shattered have been remade with the strength of your claws in mind."

Ashura gasped, a chill running down his spine. In the split second it took for him to gasp however, Jayd vanished from in front of him and appeared directly behind him with both her swords raised skyward above her head.

"Which means," Jayd declared, bridging her swords down upon Ashura, "they'll never break!"

Ashura snarled, and before Jayd's swords could make contact with his body, he grabbed the head of the snake that was his tail with one claw and the base of his tail with the other. With a sudden upward thrust of both of his arms, Ashura threw his snake tail into the path of Jayd's blade. Jayd and Eli both gasp as, in two places, the snake was severed from Ashura's body.

"Father…" hissed the snake as it fell from its father, crumbling to ash before it could so much as hit the ground, "why…"

"I'll secure my title as the strongest!" Ashura snarled, lashing his claws towards Jayd who leapt backwards in a flip before landing on her feet as the beast continued to advance towards her, "No matter the cost!"

Back on the field, Will darted towards the goal with the ball by his feet. Two opposing players came at him from either side, one kicking her foot forward to swipe the ball only for Will to kick it up off the ground and hop over the girl's kick. Landing on the ground with the ball still at his feet, Will locked his gaze upon Ronnie before continuing towards the goal.

Ronnie, as Will drew closer and closer towards him, smirked ear to ear before beating his fists together as he readied himself to counter whatever the boy before him had planned. As Will came to the crease of the goal, he raised his foot behind him, then hurled the ball forward with one of the hardest kicks he had given in his life.

Back with Jayd, the hooded warrior dodged each of Ashura's strikes with ease then hurled a roundhouse kick into the beast's side once she had an opening. The self mutilated beast let out a roar of agony, the kick being the straw which broke the already worn down beast's back.

"Ashura of Many Faces," Jayd declared, popping her green striker die out from her driver, "do you know the reason why you lost this day?"

Ashura panted and huffed, holding his side as he glared, teeth bared, at Jayd, "Because you cheated me!" he roared, slamming his fists down on the ground, the image of Oz appearing over Jayd as tears began to flow out from his eyes, "You've always cheated me from the title I rightfully deserve!"

"No, you pitifully fallen warrior," Eli's voice came out from Jayd's gauntlet as she pulled out her red finisher die and placed it into her buckle, "it is because you declared yourself the strongest… that your ability to improve was stricken from you."

"FINAL ROLL!" cried out Jayd's buckle before the hooded warrior gave the die a hard spin then landed on, "FIVE! LETHAL STRIKE!"

"Game over," Jayd said coldly as she stared down Ashura, green energy swirling around her swords before darting forward and cutting through the beast in an x formation. Ashura, once hit, recoiled his back and let out a deafening roar as his form exploded to bits in a cloud of green smoke and fluid.

Back on the field, Will stood at the crease, panting heavily as Ronnie smirked back at him with the ball in his hands. "See, what did I tell ya?" he laughed, "you're nothing, so you might as well just quit right now!"

Will, with a shrug, took his eyes off Ronnie and turned on his heel before proceeding to walk off the field.

"HEY!" Ronnie shouted at him, "I'M TALKING TO YOU WET WILLIE!"

Will stopped, but didn't turn to face his heckler, "I have nothing to prove to you Ronnie," he gave him a wave, "have a good season."

Ronnie gasped, gritting his teeth together into a snarl as Will walked away from him, "YA! You think you're just so high and mighty now!" He gripped the ball in his hands, hurling it with all his might at Will, only for it to strike the goal post and bounce back at Ronnie with enough force to smack him in the face and knock him to the ground.

As Will reached the bleachers, Liz came up to him and hugged him with one arm, and holding her box in the other. "There's my all-star," she smiled at him before kissing him on the cheek, "you gave it your best, right?"

"You bet your sweet face I did," Will smiled back at Liz and nodded, "but as much as I love this game, I'm not a big fan of being on a team as someone as toxic as Ronnie."

"So what're you gonna do?" Liz asked him.

"Maybe look into playing with a recreational league somewhere," Will said as he stretched his arms, "then make sure I go to a different high school than Ronnie, then make sure I get on the team there and give it my all."

"Yes," Liz cheered quietly, pumping her arm inward towards her chest.

"On to more pressing matters," Will grinned, pointing to the box in his girlfriend's free arm, "what's in there?"

Liz looked to the box, then blushed, "Well… I was saving it until we got to your place later, but," she held up the box and opened it up, Will's eyes lighting up as he saw a beautiful soccer themed cake with the words 'My Champion" written on top of it, "now harm in showing you now, am I right love?"

Will looked at her, grabbing her by the arm before pulling her towards him and placing a kiss upon her lips. As this happened, Trey watched with a grin on his face as Syd's voice came over the intercom.

"Trey, my boy," greeted Syd, "the cat's been declawed, how're things over there?"

"All clear, everything is wrapping up-" Trey told her, looking across the field through the lens of the communicator only to sticken silent by the image of the Jester. who was staring back at him.

The Jester raised their hand to the lips on their mask, as if to send a signal to Trey before giving him a cutesy wave and fading away with a curtsy from of their skirt.

"... nicely…" Try finally said as a shiver ran down his spine.

"Good," Eli's voice came in clear. "Meet us back at the front gates, it's high time we make preparations to leave this city."

"Wait, but what about Will?" Trey asked into the ear piece, standing up from the bleachers. "Isn't he still a fledgling?"

"There's far too many people around him right now Trey," Syd told him. "I'll track him down before we leave to perform the severance ritual. After that, not a single Gate Keeper will bother touching him ever again. You got that?"

Trey breathed a sigh of relief, then nodded, "Right… I got you."

"Good," Syd laughed, "now get over here already."

Back in the Gate Keeper's tunnel of cables, Selias upon her skeletal ring snarled heavily with her teeth gritted as tight as they could go. "Damn you network rider!" she uttered as she slammed her tightly knit fist into the jagged bones of her perch, her perch breaking her skin and drawing blood as she did so, "how many of my young must you steal from me until you're satisfied with yourself?"

"Ashura's passing was surely a great one, sister Selias," Maestro called out to the seraph from the ledge below the hoop she was suspended overtop of, "but one we can surely recover from." He stared down into the bit below, "Shall I assume you're working on assigning another warrior to fill his place?"

"Another warrior?" Selias glared at Maestro, "my children are far more than bodies to throw to the slaughter… and I have already cut too many of their lives short in such a fruitless pursuit."

Deseray, who stood beside Maestro, tilted her head to the side as she watched Selias with a blank expression, "So.. you have given up after just two then?"

"Given up?" Selias scoffed, turning her head away from her siblings. "View it as such if you wish, I refuse to allow anymore to die so pointlessly. If that's the fate you wish upon your kin, leave mine out of it."

The moment her sister turned her back to her, a devious smirk appeared upon Deseray's face. "You hear that brother?" asked the blue succubus as she turned to face Maestro, "the ball has fallen into your court."

"So it has," he bowed to his sisters, "I shall go wake Megora then."

"Megora?" Deseray raised a brow, "you'd trust something as important as this to a mimic so… emotionally distraught as her?"

"Do not doubt my creations dearest sister," Maestro said as a smirk appeared upon his own face. "Any who do so, are doomed to become one themselves."

To be continued

{Insert Ending Theme: "Again" by Beverly}